IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v689y2020i1p149-167.html

A Divided Sisterhood: Support Networks of Trans Sex Workers in Urban Turkey

Author

Listed:
  • Ezgi Güler

Abstract

This article examines how transgender individuals operating in the underground sex economy in urban Turkey form supportive relationships and mobilize against various forms of violence, given structural conditions that encourage distrust and competition and undermine collective efforts among the sex workers. I found that, despite their conditions, workers heavily relied on each other for matters ranging from small-scale interpersonal exchanges of resources to community mobilization. However, the violent and unpredictable circumstances of their lives still generated repeated conflict, making their ties precarious. The article considers the importance of fictive kinship ties in this community, and discusses the coexistence of solidarity and conflict in sex workers’ relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Ezgi Güler, 2020. "A Divided Sisterhood: Support Networks of Trans Sex Workers in Urban Turkey," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 689(1), pages 149-167, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:689:y:2020:i:1:p:149-167
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716220919745
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716220919745
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716220919745?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carlo Morselli & Isa Savoie-Gargiso, 2014. "Coercion, Control, and Cooperation in a Prostitution Ring," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 653(1), pages 247-265, May.
    2. Campbell, Catherine, 2000. "Selling sex in the time of AIDS: the psycho-social context of condom use by sex workers on a Southern African mine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 479-494, February.
    3. Paul E Farmer & Bruce Nizeye & Sara Stulac & Salmaan Keshavjee, 2006. "Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(10), pages 1-6, October.
    4. Phil Hubbard & Teela Sanders, 2003. "Making space for sex work: female street prostitution and the production of urban space," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 75-89, March.
    5. Ghose, Toorjo & Swendeman, Dallas & George, Sheba & Chowdhury, Debasish, 2008. "Mobilizing collective identity to reduce HIV risk among sex workers in Sonagachi, India: The boundaries, consciousness, negotiation framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 311-320, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ryan, Martha S. & Nambiar, Devaki & Ferguson, Laura, 2019. "Sex work-related stigma: Experiential, symbolic and structural forms in the health systems of Delhi, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 85-92.
    2. Gayitri Kavita Indar & Christine Sharon Barrow & Warren E. Whitaker, 2023. "A Convergence of Violence: Structural Violence Experiences of K–12, Black, Disabled Males across Multiple Systems," Laws, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-21, September.
    3. Matthew Williams & Non Arkaraprasertkul, 2017. "Mobility in a global city: Making sense of Shanghai’s growing automobile-dominated transport culture," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(10), pages 2232-2248, August.
    4. Sparke, Matthew, 2017. "Austerity and the embodiment of neoliberalism as ill-health: Towards a theory of biological sub-citizenship," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 287-295.
    5. Rachel Jewkes & Minja Milovanovic & Kennedy Otwombe & Esnat Chirwa & Khuthadzo Hlongwane & Naomi Hill & Venice Mbowane & Mokgadi Matuludi & Kathryn Hopkins & Glenda Gray & Jenny Coetzee, 2021. "Intersections of Sex Work, Mental Ill-Health, IPV and Other Violence Experienced by Female Sex Workers: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Community-Centric National Study in South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-13, November.
    6. Cooper, Jan E. & Dow, William H. & de Walque, Damien & Keller, Ann C. & McCoy, Sandra I. & Fernald, Lia C.H. & Balampama, Marianna P. & Kalolella, Admirabilis & Packel, Laura J. & Wechsberg, Wendee M., 2017. "Female sex workers use power over their day-to-day lives to meet the condition of a conditional cash transfer intervention to incentivize safe sex," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 148-157.
    7. Michael A. Flynn & Pietra Check & Andrea L. Steege & Jacqueline M. Sivén & Laura N. Syron, 2021. "Health Equity and a Paradigm Shift in Occupational Safety and Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-13, December.
    8. Cheney, Ann M. & Newkirk, Christine & Rodriguez, Katheryn & Montez, Anselmo, 2018. "Inequality and health among foreign-born latinos in rural borderland communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 115-122.
    9. Shilo St. Cyr & Elise Trott Jaramillo & Laura Garrison & Lorraine Halinka Malcoe & Stephen R. Shamblen & Cathleen E. Willging, 2021. "Intimate Partner Violence and Structural Violence in the Lives of Incarcerated Women: A Mixed-Method Study in Rural New Mexico," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-16, June.
    10. Pursch, Benita & Tate, Alexandra & Legido-Quigley, Helena & Howard, Natasha, 2020. "Health for all? A qualitative study of NGO support to migrants affected by structural violence in northern France," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    11. Huang, Chengkun & Xu, Hong, 2025. "From indigenous villages to World Heritage Sites: Structural violence in spatial transformation," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    12. Jenkinson, J.I.R. & Wigle, J. & Richard, L. & Tibebu, T. & Orkin, A.M. & Thulien, N.S. & Kiran, T. & Gogosis, E. & Crichlow, F. & Dyer, A.P. & Gabriel, M.D. & Hwang, S.W., 2025. "Structural violence as a driver of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and low vaccine uptake among people experiencing homelessness in Toronto, Canada: A qualitative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
    13. Panter-Brick, Catherine & Eggerman, Mark, 2018. "The field of medical anthropology in Social Science & Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 233-239.
    14. Gamlin, Jennie B., 2013. "Shame as a barrier to health seeking among indigenous Huichol migrant labourers: An interpretive approach of the “violence continuum” and “authoritative knowledge”," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 75-81.
    15. Mendelsohn, Joshua B. & Rhodes, Tim & Spiegel, Paul & Schilperoord, Marian & Burton, John Wagacha & Balasundaram, Susheela & Wong, Chunting & Ross, David A., 2014. "Bounded agency in humanitarian settings: A qualitative study of adherence to antiretroviral therapy among refugees situated in Kenya and Malaysia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 387-395.
    16. Richard Croucher & Lilian Miles, 2018. "Ethnicity, popular democratic movements and labour in Malaysia," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 39(2), pages 294-311, May.
    17. Ziyu Liu & Ya’nan Wu & Shunping Li, 2025. "Facilitators and barriers to healthcare services among patients with Atypical Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome: a qualitative study," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Colin Forsyth & Sheba Meymandi & Ilan Moss & Jason Cone & Rachel Cohen & Carolina Batista, 2019. "Proposed multidimensional framework for understanding Chagas disease healthcare barriers in the United States," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-23, September.
    19. Yang, Lawrence H. & Chen, Fang-pei & Sia, Kathleen Janel & Lam, Jonathan & Lam, Katherine & Ngo, Hong & Lee, Sing & Kleinman, Arthur & Good, Byron, 2014. "“What matters most:” A cultural mechanism moderating structural vulnerability and moral experience of mental illness stigma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 84-93.
    20. Marlow, Marguerite & Christie, Hope & Skeen, Sarah & Rabie, Stephan & Louw, Jacobus G. & Swartz, Leslie & Mofokeng, Shoeshoe & Makhetha, Moroesi & Tomlinson, Mark, 2021. "Alcohol use during pregnancy in rural Lesotho: “There is nothing else except alcohol”," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:689:y:2020:i:1:p:149-167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.